Word of the Day

: December 13, 2008

quaggy

adjective KWAGG-ee

What It Means

1 : marshy

2 : flabby

quaggy in Context

“The alluring creeks and guts that cut through the quaggy archipelago are littered with too much manmade detritus.” (The Baltimore Sun, August 20, 2006)

Did You Know?

“Quaggy” is related to “quagmire,” a word for a patch of wet land that feels soft underfoot, but etymologists are not sure where the first half of the latter word originates. Some have suggested that “quag” might be imitative, echoing the soft, mushy sound that wet ground makes when you walk on it. Both “quagmire” and the shorter noun “quag” first appeared in English in the 1580s, while “quaggy,” which can describe land as well as other things lacking firmness, appeared about thirty years later.